Anticipation builds as trout parks opener nears

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An angler pulls a freshly caught trout, still hooked on fishing line, out of the river at Roaring River State Park on opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, anglers cast their fishing lines in the hopes of catching a trout during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, anglers cast their fishing lines in the hopes of catching a trout during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Ben Sammons, 17, from Diamond, Mo., removes a hook from a trout he caught at Roaring River State Park on opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, anglers cast their fishing lines in the hopes of catching a trout during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, anglers cast their fishing lines in the hopes of catching a trout during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Paul Scott, from Neosho, fishes from rocks in the hopes of catching a trout during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Dressed in a tuxedo, John Canedy fishes during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Canedy said wearing the tux started out as a dare from his friends. "It started out that way, then I thought why not. I don't get to use a tux around here that often anyway, it's as good occasion as any." he said.
Correction: This photo original had the subjects name spelled incorrectly and has been updated to show the correct spelling of his name,
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Dressed in a tuxedo, John Canedy fishes during opening day of the catch-and-keep trout season at Roaring River State Park on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Canedy said wearing the tux started out as a dare from his friends. "It started out that way, then I thought why not. I don't get to use a tux around here that often anyway, it's as good occasion as any." he said.
Correction: This photo original had the subjects name spelled incorrectly and has been updated to show the correct spelling of his name,
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

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This gathering of trout anglers at Roaring River on opening day will be similar on March 1 as trout anglers are getting ready for the annual onslaught of anxious anglers at Missouri’s four trout parks.(Photo: Ken White)

The countdown has started. In less than a month, the unofficial start of fishing season begins. Of course, the fishing never stops in Missouri, but there is something special about the annual trout fishing season opener in the four trout parks on March 1.

Harold Foster never puts up his fishing gear and has sampled fishing since the first of 2018 by catching crappie and white bass below the dam at Truman Lake; several bass, crappie and walleye on Bull Shoals; and even crappie, bass and bluegill from several farm ponds. Not a bad start for the year.

Reports of crappie hitting at Stockton and the Lake of the Ozarks, as well as some good fishing on Lake Norfork, caused some anglers to head for the lake. Bob Parker, Springfield, said, “I caught several nice walleye at Norfork but had to go deep to get them. They were around 40 feet deep; it was like deep sea fishing.”

Parker and Tom Jackson heard the stripers were hitting at Norfork, so they gave it a try and were glad they did. It was a first for both anglers. They caught several stripers to go along with four walleye.

You really need a fish locator when fishing for stripers; they have an affinity for deep water and tend to suspend at mid-depth levels, so electronic depth finders are important to striper fishing success. If you are good at interpreting them, flashers will help you locate the fish. A quality chart recorder, however, draws a picture of structures and pinpoints individual fish more clearly than a flasher. A “woodpile” hanging at the edge of a drop-off is striper talk for a school of stripers that looks something like a woodpile on the graph. When you find one, you have found a striper honey hole. When the graph shows the fish fanning out, that is the time to hang on to your fishing rod.

Parker said, “This was our first fishing trip of the new year; it was a great way to start 2018. We might not have another trip as good for the rest of the year.”

The usual scene on opening day of the trout season at Bennett Spring. Although it's early February, the countdown to March 1 has anxious anglers getting ready to hook their first tout of the season.(Photo: Ken White)

Back to the trout opener. With a Thursday start to the trout catch-and-keep season, the crowd might not be as large as a weekend start, but you can be sure the banks will be lined with anxious anglers waiting to make their first cast. Opening day isn’t just about fishing; it is also reunion time for many of the anglers. That’s the way it is at the trout parks on opening day. Trout fishing really never stops in Missouri. There is always trout fishing at Lake Taneycomo as well as a few other streams in the state, but March 1 is special no matter what the weather or anything else. It will be no different this year as thousands of trout anglers gather at the trout parks looking to hook an “old fighter” as the tradition continues.

Missouri is a fishing state. Around a fourth of our total population, encompassing all ages, fishes. Anglers spend millions of dollars on fishing tackle and millions more on services and big items, including boats. This is good for the state’s economy and the need for recreation.

If you should ask these Missourians why they go fishing, more than likely the answer would be to catch fish and have fun. Yet, the average shows that out of 10 fishermen, one will catch most of the fish. Why should this be?

CLOSE

Transplanted in 1880s, wily McCloud rainbows at home in Crane Creek
Wes Johnson/News-Leader

Some call it luck, and at times it is. But day after day and trip after trip, know-how is the answer. A case in point was brought to my attention when, while fishing from a dock in January, I noticed one fisherman bring in a limit of crappie while two other fishermen hadn’t caught a single fish. Then I saw why. The pair of anglers were using heavy rods, the same ones they use for catfishing. They had 12-pound test line on their bait casting reels. I watched for awhile and saw that on several occasions they had a light strike and didn’t know it. The successful fisherman I checked was using 2-pound test line in the clear water and had an ultralight rod and reel. It made all the difference between catching fish and going home fishless.

No matter which fish you go after — catfish, walleye, trout, bluegill, crappie or carp — it pays dividends to have the know-how to catch your share of fish, and along with the fish you will catch are limitless memories.

Ken White writes about hunting and fishing for the News-Leader. Contact him at kdwhite7@windstream.net.